After It Ends
by kayke
Summary: A post war fic that involves the changing relationships between the four nations and the people running them. Zutara.
1. Prologue: At Camp

Author's Note: This story takes place after a second seige on the Fire Nation. It focuses on Katara and Zuko, mainly, but it also has to deal with the relationships between the nations as they find peace after the great war. I tried to keep it mostly cannon, but there are parts that are just made up for the sake of the story. There are a lot of perspective switches.

Also, despite my best efforts, I couldn't find a proper beta for this, so I attempted to proof read it myself... there shouldn't be any huge errors, but tell me if you spot any mistakes.

Enjoy the fic!

* * *

That night a strange quiet suffocated the camp. It hung from the trees, it dried the air, and pulled at the end's of everyone's sleeves. It was a child refusing to be ignored, and it took a child to break it. Sneaking up behind her favorite fire bender, in an attempt at surprise, she was the first to speak to him since dinner "Hey, Sparky! Why the long face?"

"Well, it's not like I'm about to invade my own house or anything, right?" the exiled prince responded sarcastically. When he saw the look on the girl's face, the slight hurt in her white-gray eyes, he put his own problems aside. "Heeeeeeeeeey, how could you tell my face was long? Last time I checked, seeing wasn't exactly your strong point."

She laughed and stuck one of her feet in his face, "I see with my feet!" Zuko recoiled as her toes touched his cheek. "Yup, definatly a long face!"

He grabbed her leg and pulled her, hopping, to him. "Come here, you! What's the big idea, sticking your dirty stinky feet near my nose! That's a good way to get yourself attacked by a tickle monster!" The former Fire Prince then knocked her down, not hard of course, but just enough to get her off her feet. He remembered years and years ago at the summer house when he, _Zuzu, _would do the same with his little sister, _Toph doesn't breath fire when she laughs. _"Earth benders are a tickle monster's favorite food! They like to eat them all up!"

Toph laughed as she was showered in kisses that were accompanied by exaggerated fake munching and chewing sounds, but her tough girl attitude would not allow her to relish in what might be one of the last moments of her already ending childhood. "Get off, Sparky! Zuuuuuukoooooooo! I'm not a little kid!"

"You're right Toph, but it seems as if Zuko is." A sharp voice came out of the shadows. "Playing 'tickle monster' when we're about to invade a nation. I never expected the boy who tried to kill me on a near daily basis to be much for tickling."

Zuko snapped into a sitting position, relinquishing his grip on Toph. He wanted to say he never wanted to kill her, or anyone, just to capture them... but that would have no effect. _Of all the people, why did she have to walk in... _His face was bright red, no one in camp aside from Toph had ever seen him in what the earth bender called 'Big Brother Mode'.

Toph was never one to hold her tongue, even in the face of an angry Katara, and quickly spoke up in his defense. "We were just playing! Maybe you should lighten up, we weren't doing anything important, anyway!"

* * *

"Exactly my point." Katara snapped back. "You should be in bed, and Hothead should be helping out around camp. No one else is taking a cuddle break." She paused and neither the fire or earth bender responded. "Do you realize how serious tomorrow is? Aang has to battle the Fire Lor-" _Your dad, Zuko's dad. Zuko's dad is going to die tomorrow and he's going to help kill him. The fire lord is Zuko's father._ "-d."

"You heard the water bender, Looks like it's bed time for all cute little girls." Zuko said, his voice so low and soft that Katara could hardly make out what he was saying. "We have a big day ahead of us tomorrow."

Without another word, Katara watched as Zuko picked up their younger friend and she wrapped her arms around his neck, letting her wall of cynicism and strength crumble like the walls of Ba Sing Se under the siege of the Fire Nation. "You're not going to be able to fall asleep tonight, Sparky. I know your not." Katara could hear Toph saying as they got farther away and closer to camp. "I want to sit with you so you're not alone."

"Don't worry about me, kid."

"But your-"

"I said don't worry. Everything will be fine..."


	2. Chapter One: Ozai's Last Stand

A Word from the Author: I know I said it was set post war, but this is kind of an addition to the prologue. Seriously, though, the rest is post war.

: )

* * *

It was strange how quickly Zuko's bad eye became his good eye. He staggered backwards, his face felt as if it were going to fall off. He heard Aang scream something, his voice sounding rougher than the fire prince had ever heard it. _He needs to go into avatar state. He can't do this._ He felt a hot surge come across his face again, and could hardly see for blood running in his eye, over the pink skin of his old scar. _The other side will never get a chance to heal. _He covered his face, backing farther, blindly. _I'm going to die. Closed casket, please._

"Zuko! He's right in front of you!" The Avatar shouted at him. "HELP!"

That one word sent such fear into Zuko, more than the fact that he couldn't see. He wasn't worried about his burned face or scorched hands. Aang, the Avatar, Savior of the world, was asking him for help. He was scared.

He shot a flame in front of him, judging by the silhouette that he could just barely see, and the grunting sound that he surprised his father and hit him square. He took the moment it would cast him out of step to regain his bending stance, and to yell to the boy _, he's just a boy,_across the room. "Aang! Hide! JUST DO IT!"

He couldn't tell if he was being obeyed, but he hoped. He could last a little longer, _Maybe._ Long enough for one of the others to show up and help _If there's anyone else left to help. _

He could barely feel his body anymore. There was no pain at all, just fear, and even the fear was not for himself. The voices of those he had come to care for rang in his mind. He imagined Sokka, surrounded by benders, with nothing but a sword and a boomerang. _Where is that Jerkbender? Deserted us again?! _Toph, scared and alone, hurt maybe... blind eyes crying. Was she calling his name? _Sparky, where are you? Sparky!_ His Uncle_,_biting off more than he can chew, forgetting that old bones have a tenancy to break. _Prince Zuko! Nephew!_He imagined Katara, trying to heal the wounded soldiers, surrounding herself unintentionally with death, feeling the pain of all those poor souls. Her voice simply sobbed.

He flaied wildly at the thought, trying to push away his weakness and be a warrior. He wanted to die with honor, not as a crying coward. _It's crying for yourself that is cowardly... dying for them is the most honorable death I can think of... I'm glad Toph is blind. Closed casket. _

* * *

Katara's pace picked up, her feet carrying her faster than she thought she could run. Up until a few moments ago, all she had heard was the screaming and grunting of soldiers fighting on the battle field, but inside the massive palace, the air was strangely still and quiet. She had to find someone, anyone, to fight or to heal, she didn't care at this point. All she could think about was her friends in danger, as she ran through the seemingly endless hallways and passages, the walls covered in tapastries and-... wait! A burned tapestry! Someone was close by!

A scream rang through the air, somewhere not far off, and for the first time since the second invasion began, Katara stopped moving. She could feel her heart trying to break it's way out of her rib cage. There was a second agonized scream, a mixture of anger and pain, like an injured animal, so full of rage, but too confused to direct it at any one source. _It was Zuko_. He was somewhere close.

It dawned upon the water tribe girl that she was stationary, and she soon reversed that condition, rushing blindly to the aid of the former prince. The closer she got the more sounds she heard and the more destruction she saw. It was as if the comet had come a few days early and crashed into the side of the palace. _If only._

The thrown room seemed to be the point of impact of the comet, or rather, the battle ground. It was dark, except for flashes of fire and lightening, and Katara could barey assess the scene. It took her a moment before she even registered what she was witnessing, _History unfolding, _right before her eyes. Aang was at the far end of the long room using a moving wall of stone as his shield, Zuko was over to the side shouting obscenities and shooting fire balls rapidly and haphazardly. And there was a figure nearest to her, tall and dark and silhouetted by the flames, looking as if he had risen out of hell itself. _Ozai._

They were fighting the fire lord and apparently not fairing well. Aang was not in avatar state, and the fire lord was focusing his attentions on his son for the time being. _Why isn't Zuko fighting back? He's not aiming!_All sorts of terrible thoughts flowed into Katara's mind as she watched the ball of flames she knew to be Zuko. He was barely landing a single shot. _He's switched sides again! He's missing on purpose!_

No one had noticed her yet, she could take out Zuko with a surprise attack and leave Ozai for Aang. She continued to watch the prince move, _like a wounded animal_, when she noticed something. His face was shining in the glow of the fire. _It's just his scar._The rough skin was different from that of Aang's, that's why it looked different. _It's on the wrong side._

Another anguished scream filled the room and the Fire Lord sent a wave of fire at his son, the boy covering his face in an attempt to shield himself. "I should have finished you off when you were a boy. I should have burned you to a crisp the moment you were out of your mother's womb. I knew from the beginning you were filth!"

Zuko refused to fall to his knees. _Like a wounded animal. _He formed fire whips as his father drew closer, and waved them wildly, panicked. _A wounded animal. _His face was fully lit up now, red and shining wet, both sides of his face. _Wounded animal._ The former prince had lost all of his graceful fighting style. There were no more studied moves or complex techniques. He was barely recognizable as the boy she fought and sparred with. His wild motions and poor aim... _Animal._

"It's time to end what I should have ended years ago. You were never my son!"

The water bender found herself rushing across the room, water pouch still corked, but hands and arms in bending positions. The Fire Lord stopped, the cackling of lightening around his hands vanishing as he reached up at his own throat. Katara felt like a different person as she caused his blood to rush to his neck, constricting his throat. She wanted to kill him, she was going to kill him, she was going to crush his heart in his chest and then rip out his-

"Katara!"

Aang lowered his protective wall and her concentration was broken just long enough for Ozai to regain control of the situation. "Water bending rat!" He grabbed her by the hair, his very eyes made of fire. "I'll make you wish you were killed in one of the raid of your putrid little iceberg," he snarled.

Katara fumbled with the cork of her water pouch, but dropped it as her body slammed hard on the floor, sending her limbs sprawling. She could feel the air in the room heat up, and knew what was coming next. She closed her eyes and bit her lip, not wanting to give him the satisfaction of hearing her scream-

"NO!"

Three screams filled the room, one being her own, and there was a sudden added weight on Katara as a warm, though near lifeless, body fell on top of her, knocking the breath out of her. Suddenly the room was filled with intense purple and white light, along with the blue lightening, and Katara was no longer afraid. She moved Zuko off of her, feeling strangely removed from the battle that was still going on around her. As the Avatar defeated the Fire Lord, she didn't so much as blink an eye, she merely looked down at the boy lying in her lap, body singed black and face an abrasive and moist looking red, both eyes burned shut.

* * *

He grasped at her robes until he found her arm, and eventually her wrist. He gripped tightly to her hand, with more strength than he knew he still had left in him. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry," He breathlessly repeated, a metallic taste leaking out of his mouth along with the words. _I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm sorry._

* * *

For some reason she couldn't explain if she tried, she placed a hand on the side of his face where the burn scar had always been. "I forgive you. I forgave you in the cave, I forgave you at the temple. In my heart I forgive you. You've changed, You've changed, You've changed." _Don't die here. Don't die here. Don't die before he does. Don't let your father win._

Zuko felt as if he would drown in his own blood if he didn't die from one of his wounds first. _I've never said it_. He coughed, grabbing onto her necklace with his free hand, feeling it come loose, leaving him with the cold metal disk in his hand. _I'm going to die. I'll never get to say _"Katara."

"You've changed. You've changed, I forgive you... you... cha...d.. for... ve... ou... Zu... I.. gi... ko..."


	3. Chapter Two: Waking Up

_He could see it glimmering, in the distance. He reached for it, he reached for absolute perfection and peace. The beautiful shining disk that he associated with water and snow and winter and Katara, certainly it must be nirvana. "Katara!" he found his voice rasping out of his throat, "Katara! KATARA!"_

_She stood before him, arms outstreatched toward him. She looked like a statue or a spirit, glowing blue with healing and smiling at him her mouth and her eyes._

_"Katara..." He fell into her open arms, the only thing he could see in the desolate landscape. She cooed and hummed, the way she used to when one of the younger children fell and scraped a knee, or felt homesick. They were the noises of healing. Everything smelled of lemon and honey, and tea, and the clean cold scent of ice. He had to bite the insides of his cheeks to keep from crying._

_All of a sudden the cold he was feeling, changed to heat, and Katara drew away. He opened his eyes to plead with her to stay, but he saw his father, holding the necklace, dangling the pendant by the blue ribbon, all he had left of her._

_"KATARA!" He called out and tried to run forward, but felt something push him down. "YOU STAY AWAY FROM HER!" There was something forcing him down and holding him back, no matter how hard he fought. "THE NECKLACE! HER NECKLACE! GIVE IT TO ME, YOU BASTARD! I WON'T LET YOU HURT HER! I'LL KILL YOU, FIRST! YOU LET HER GO!"_

_He was free to fight, nothing was holding him back any longer, but before he could bend, there was a cold hand on his arm. "Shhh... Shhh..." she said in his ear. "It's alright. Shhhh... He's dead now." He looked up at her face, and she tied her necklace around his wrist. She touched his cheek and he leaned into her hand, feeling as if he were going to bun to ash if he didn't feel her cool fingers on his skin. "You did well, Zuko. We're alright, see? We're fine. Shhhh... Shhhh..."_

* * *

Zuko had gotten used to the squint of his one eye, long ago. The scar impaired his vision, that was that, he adapted. _Over came._ His whole body felt sore, and his senses barely registered the bed beneath him, or the warm blankets above. Pain was pain, and that's all, he could deal with pain. It was his thoughts that really hurt.

For the first time in his life, Zuko was afraid to open his eyes. What if he couldn't open them if he tried? What if he opened them and only saw darkness? And what if he could see... and did see... what sight would await him. He remembered seeing the water bender, somewhere over him. Her cold hand had touched his face, and she had held him. He couldn't remember what she had said, or what was happening. He must have been dying for her to hold him... _Maybe I'm-_

"AWAKE!" There was a loud pounding in the distance, growing nearer, and the sound of the door bursting open. "He's awake! He's awake, again!"

"Miss Bei Fong, please, he has not moved since last time you saw him," His uncle's voice, calm and hushed, "He is quiet asleep."

"He's faking! He's awake! Let go of me!"

Zuko barely had enough time to register that he was the one who was being accused of fake sleeping, when two small arms wrapped around his neck and something hard hit his shin. He didn't mind the pain that both of these acts caused his sore body.

"I could feel you worrying from the other room, Sparky. I know you're awake." She spoke into his neck, "I knew you'd be okay."

"I won't be alright if you keep squeezing me like that. I can't tell if I'm being hugged or strangled to death." Zuko laughed and waited until Toph sat back a little to open his eyes, "What a beautiful sight to wake up to. Tell me, do you hug all sleeping fire benders? Cause it's not the best idea."

"Oh shut up, Sparky. I know you weren't really sleeping."

There was a knowing chuckle from Uncle Iroh, followed by his slow and steady tone, "It seems as if you've made a friend, nephew."

"Well, not everyone can hate me utterly. Statistically, that is." Zuko said, as Toph stopped laying on top of him, and opted for sitting next to him, which was a relief to the bruises she had been pressing against.

The blind bandit smiled and kicked her feet over the side of the bed. One leg was wrapped in a stone cast, that he assumed she must have fashioned herself. "I dunno, I'd say your fan base has grown substantially while you were in here playing sleeping beauty. Duke has been talking about wanting twin swords ever since he heard how you took down that one guard, Chiefie said he wished he had been able to meet you under different curcum- whatevers, and I even caught Sokka himself saying he wanted you to be okay... well, he said "Wake up already" but he meant well. Not to mention Sugar Queen lurking guarding your room like a saber-tooth moose lion!"

"Katara's okay?"

"Never been better, as far as I can tell." Toph said, seeming a little bored by the question. "She didn't even rest one single day. She set right off to heal the injured once she was sure you weren't going to die. She hung around till your fever broke."

"Fever?"

"You were very sick, Nephew." His uncle nodded, agreeing with Toph's story. "It was amazing that you didn't die... redirecting your father's lightening was a foolish thing to do without your sight. Foolish... but brave. I'm sure someone was watching over you and saw your intentions were pure."

"Or it could just be because you're kick ass. From what I heard, you fought like a lion-bear!" Toph said to Zuko, her face angelic in it's own coarse way, and Zuko was glad to see it.

Iroh breathed deeply, before standing up. "I think I will go get us tea and something to eat." Before he completely left the room, he turned, a smile on his face, "I will not tell anyone of your recovery until Miss Katara returns, I don't want to think of the consequences she would inflict on my old bones if she was not among the first to know." And with that, he was gone.

Toph took this as a cue to crawl back on top of Zuko, sitting herself on his stomach and taking one of her hands in both of her own, playing with it as she spoke. Zuko noticed Katara's necklace was dangling from his wrist, but he thought nothing of it. _I'll save you from my father. _It was from Toph, as he lay there in his old bed, in his childhood room, that he found out about what had happened during and after the battle. Sokka had taken on 20 fire benders with nothing more than a sword and his boomerang, he was currently acting as a delegate along with his father in the peace conference that was going to take place in a different part of the palace, "I think I should be an Earth Kingdom representative, but they're waiting for the King to get here to start." Katara, as previously stated, was helping heal the injured, along with any other healing water benders (or regular doctors) that could be found, spending her nights playing mother to what was left of their ragtag group, "You'd think she'd quit it once we were in a real house with real adults, but not Sugar Queen." Haru was presumed dead, no body turned up yet, though. Same was true for the Mechanist. Aang was physically fine, but wasn't talking to anyone, not even Katara.

Iroh was one of the Fire Nation's representatives at the peace conference, but hadn't spent much time helping with the preperations, so he could stay with Zuko, Toph, and Aang; the three of whom were staying in the Fire Palace to rest off their injuries "Though I don't really need any more rest." Azula had been captured, though Toph hadn't been told the full story, having heard that news from Sokka, who was not actually there at the time it happened... "though we had both been there when Appa almost landed on her! I wish I could see that again! The look on her face, I think Sokka almost died laughing!" The 'creepy one', as Toph put it, had gone missing and the 'happy one' was being held prisoner, but not under any real security, since she was badly injured and she kept on crying and saying she was sorry, "She asked how you were doing. Sokka went to see her yesterday."

"And what about you?" Zuko asked, when Toph finished describing the epic battle between The Boulder and a Di Li agent.

The girl paused, her hands going still on his for a moment. "I got hurt toward the end of the battle, I was running away... I know it wasn't dishonorable, I already got that speach, so don't start." Her blank eyes glared for an instant, but then returned to normal. "I defended myself pretty well with my leg broken in two places... I guess it was like having one eye, huh?"

"And since then?"

"I've pretty much stayed with you..." She mumbled, quieter than he had ever heard her speak, ever.

The Fire Prince remarkably still had an eyebrow to raise, w_ater bending healing, no doubt. _"You stayed here? For how long?"

"Well, I wasn't necessarily here. I was in the room next door. And you were out for about 3 days, if you count this one." She explained, seeming guilty for some reason "With my leg the way it is... I can't really tell what's going on. And I don't like the unfamiliar foot steps everywhere else... This has basically been the quietest part of-... well, I guess the whole country. The only people allowed into this wing are members of our group and their immediate family members." She perked up a little, apparently glad to be off the topic of herself and her insecurities. "I was here when you woke up in your fever, talking all crazy, everyone thought you were going to jump out of bed and fire bend!"

_Great... now I'm that crazy fever guy..._ "What was I talking about?"

"You wanted to defend Katara... Iroh figures you were still in the mindset you had been in when you passed out," Toph smiled, "You pointed out Sokka as Ozai and kept on shouting for Aang to hide. You couldn't even tell which one of us was Katara, but you sure as hell wanted to save her from something."

Zuko sighed and sunk deeper into his covers, "What else happened?"

"Well, you slept a lot... and snored..." She said, and then dropped her voice, "I-... I touched your face... your eye... At first, I was really scared. I thought it was a new scar, one from this invasion. Katara said she never saw you without it and that you got it when you were a kid... Does it hurt?"

"Not anymore. Not for a long time." He said, for the first time, not feeling any real emotion about his scar. _It's just a mark. It's meaning died along with it's creator._He watched Toph's face look a little anxious. "You can touch it if you want, I don't really mind."

Seemingly thinking of doing just that, the earth bender reached out a small hand, touching it around his eye, gently prodding the slightly coarser skin with her fingers. "It's strange knowing that you looked a certain way but I imagined you another way." She let her hands move, feeling his nose and around his other eye as well. "I thought your face would be more square..."

"Nah, I look like my mother. Her eyes and nose... the only bit of me that was my father's was my scar." Zuko said, reaching up and tweaking the girl's nose. "And now that's all mine."

"It was your dad who gave you the scar? I would have thought it was your crazy sister."

The almost laughed, "No, at that point she was only a little girl, not quiet the psycho you know... It was him." _My father._"I was in a war meeting with my uncle, and I heard about a plan to send some of the men on a suicide mission. I opposed and I ended up being challenged to and Angi Kai by my own father over it... or over the principle of it... I guess I'll never know."

Toph laid down, cuddling in next to Zuko, her feet off the ground. _I don't think I've ever seen her lay down anywhere but the floor... _"Your family life doesn't sound like it was the greatest..."

"Hmph... there is definitely about a 10 year period somewhere in there I wish I could do over... but it's stuff like that who makes us who we are. I like who I am. I hate who I was, but right now, I like who I am... I haven't felt that way in a long time, Kid. I'm so glad we're safe, finally. I'm so proud of everyone. Of you and Aang. Sokka and Katara..."

"And we are all so proud of you, nephew." Iroh stated upon reentering the room with a tray of sandwiches and tea. "I have never felt more pride."


End file.
